Pesto, Ricotta, and Cherry Tomato Pizza

I made some pesto a while back and let me tell you, I ALWAYS have extra when I make pesto. Often times I’ll forget about it in the back of the fridge and have to throw it away a few weeks later (gross!). This go around, I decided to put my leftovers in an airtight container and freeze it until I had something to do with it.

Well, my friends, I have found THE thing to make using up that extra pesto… this amazing pizza:

Seriously, I’m still drooling over it. I had it for dinner last night, lunch today, and I MAY be contemplating finishing off that last piece tonight… yah, that good. I can’t stop thinking about the daggum thing! Oh, and I’m pretty sure I’ve got some rank garlic breath going on, but I totally don’t care.

This pie is the best I’ve had in a long time!

Do yourself a favor and make this pizza TONIGHT!

You can buy pesto at the grocery store if you don’t have any on hand, but it’s super easy to make (basil, garlic, pine nuts and/or walnuts, parmesan cheese, and olive oil – blended up in a food processor – I love Ina Garten’s recipe as a base). Freeze the extra and defrost for future use!

Ingredients:

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425° F (use the convection option for an extra crispy crust!) with the pizza stone in the oven. If you do not have a pizza stone, preheat a baking sheet in the oven and keep in mind cooking times may be longer.

Roll dough out into a large circle. Sprinkly pre-heated stone with cornmeal and carefully place dough onto stone to allow to par-bake for 4-6 mintutes. Carefully remove crust from oven using a pizza peel. Spread pesto over entire crust in an even and thin layer. Sprinkle with fresh mozzarella. Scoop ricotta evenly over pizza using a small cookie dough scoop (use as much or as little as you like). Evenly spread the tomatoes on top.

Bake at 425° until cheese is melted and bubbly and the tomatoes begin to burst (8-12 minutes). Turn heat down to 400° if the crust is getting too dark. Remove from oven and serve with fresh parmesan and crushed red pepper flakes.

This sounds amazing! I’m jealous you have the patience to photograph your pizza. I made an AMAZING pizza the other night, and thought I might get to photograph the leftovers, but there were none! We didn’t wait, and just started eating. 😉

This looks delishious! I’ve recently started following your blog and I just love it! The recipes are always so inspiring and the pictures are just beautiful!

For this pizza, did you use grocery store pizza dough and did you bake it on a pizza stone? I have a Pampered Chef pizza stone but I’ve never had good success with the Publix dough. Your crust looks wonderful, so I was just wondering how you did it. Do you think the convection oven is the trick?